As selected by a jury from the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema for the 4th consecutive year, the NETPAC Award for World or International Asian Film Premiere goes to Sion Sono for The Whispering Star. Jury members include jury chairperson Anne Misawa (USA), Heather Keung (Canada), and Nashen Moodley (Australia).

The jury remarked, “For its poetic, moving and brave attempt to express a grief that's inexpressible, combining all too real elements with lo-fi sci-fi, the NETPAC jury awards the prize to The Whispering Star.”

My BD arrived today and bloody hell, the bonus disc runs 234 minutes. For a moment I though they threw Love Exposure in as a bonus. There's a 2 hour making of documentary which seemed fun... Sono and Nishimura looked excited like little boys as they were working on the outrageous gore effects. Also, Tak Sakaguchi doing a lot of action work and stunt doubling. The rest of the extras are interviews and event footage (plus trailers on disc 1, and a few photo cards inside the case... probably limited to the first pressing).

The Virgin Psychics already got an English subtitled DVD release in Hong Kong from distributor IVL on March 22nd. Extras are just a trailer and a TV spot. No BD release, similar to how it was with Tokyo Tribe's HK release. Must be contractual reasons, i.e. the Japanese being afraid of cheaper imports ruining their own sales.

A friend of mine went to a Sono talk show event today. According to him, Sono said Shinjuku Swan 2 is out next year and sucks Sono's next two movies are supposed to be Whispering Star 2 and Dracula (mind you, Sono is the Japanese Tarantino when it comes to changing plans).

We're just about through the early ones right now, headed into "Suicide Club" and beyond at the top of next week.

I spent the afternoon combing through this thread and learned a lot of interesting things, so thanks for that.

I came to Sono fairly late, but I'm becoming an avid champion of his films (even though "Shinjuku Swan" sucks).

I'm wondering if anyone here might have come across subs for his 1998 short film "Wind" (Kaze). I got an unsubbed copy off a torrent site, but my limited Japanese can only get me so far. It seems like a really important work from what I've watched; it seems to be Sono's very first ever genre film. As such, I'd love to watch it properly. I'm also eternally looking for subs for 2006's "Balloon Club Revisited" and any kind of copy of 1998's "Dankon: The Man." Both of those features had to be left out of our retrospective because we couldn't track 'em down.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy the project we've put together, and I'll start trying to check in here regularly.

I admit to being curious how it'll do at the box office. The first one was a huge hit (that's why we're getting this sequel, duh) but do audiences still care or have the moved on to the next flavor of the month? Will poor Sono have to direct a 3rd entry?

Guro Taku wrote:I admit to being curious how it'll do at the box office. The first one was a huge hit (that's why we're getting this sequel, duh) but do audiences still care or have the moved on to the next flavor of the month? Will poor Sono have to direct a 3rd entry?

I can answer my own question to some extent: SHINJUKU SWAN came in at #2 after the juggernaut that is YOUR NAME last weekend.

The series is Sono’s first based completely on an original screenplay, and tells the story of humanity battling against a vampire tribe. It stars actress Kaho, taking on her first full-scale action role; Shinnosuke Mitsushima; Ami Tomite, a young actress who is mentored by Sono; Yumi Adachi; and Megumi Kagurazaka, the director’s wife.

Production was in the Nikkatsu studios in Japan, and also various locations in Transylvania, Romania, including Dracula’s Castle and the Salina Turda salt mines.

The series is Sono’s first based completely on an original screenplay, and tells the story of humanity battling against a vampire tribe. It stars actress Kaho, taking on her first full-scale action role; Shinnosuke Mitsushima; Ami Tomite, a young actress who is mentored by Sono; Yumi Adachi; and Megumi Kagurazaka, the director’s wife.

Production was in the Nikkatsu studios in Japan, and also various locations in Transylvania, Romania, including Dracula’s Castle and the Salina Turda salt mines.